I unfortunately just did not feel a connection to these characters. The way Tom is portrayed in the beginning didn’t seem to line up with the Tom we meet when Riley gets to NYC, and the rationale behind the change didn’t match up enough for me. I do appreciate how Lord incorporates NYC into all her books, but I just didn’t feel as excited about this one as I have her others.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a super cute and fast read for me. It had all the requirements for a cute YA rom-com. I really enjoyed all of the main characters and their relationships. I felt like I could be part of their group (if I wasn’t 30 years older)
A fun read for an airplane.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC to read in exchange for my honest review

I haven’t read any work from Emma Lord and honestly requested this book by the cover art. Then I realized that Lord was a pretty well know and loved author. In regards to the book I could not get into the story. Maybe it’s because I’m out of high school and I’m the wrong audience for the book but I found it to be for someone younger.

Each time I get an email inviting me to read Emma Lord’s latest work I get so excited and know I have a great read in front of me. “The Getaway List,” was the perfect company as I sat on the beach last weekend. Another Lord YA classic, filled with love and friendship and of course a fictional food destination of my dreams.

Getting rejected from all 10 colleges she applies to, Riley Larson, graduates without an exact plan for what’s next, but knows it’s going to be better than high school. Celebrating her graduation with a McFlurry Riley decides to spend the weekend in NY with her best friend Tom. Tom and his movie director mother moved to the city years ago and Riley can’t wait to reunite with the one she caused the most trouble with. As the book says it’s always been TomandRiley, or RileyandTom, and when she arrives it’s as if they’ve never met. What is supposed to be a weekend escape ends up in Riley deciding to stay for the summer. At her mother’s dismay Riley and Tom spend the summer fulfilling the missions on their long ago made, “Getaway List.” Adventures inspired by their favorite book series, “Tides of Time,” like “3. Go on the ‘Tides of Time,’ exploration walk in Central Park,” and more basic things like “5. Go to karaoke.” They include their friends in an epic summer of antics all around the city- which is a character in the book.

Loved this one, as I do with all Emma Lord books, can’t wait to add it to my bookshelf when it is released in January!

Riley Larsen had just graduated from high school without a plan for college. On a whim, she goes to NYC to visit her best friend, Tom. After 3 years apart, their friendship is just as strong and there’s maybe some chemistry there. Riley and Tom gather a group of new friends to work through the “Getaway List” of fun excursions that Riley and Tom had planned throughout their 3 years apart. During the summer, Riley realizes she knows exactly who she wants to be.
In true Emma Lord fashion, the romance is sweet, but is not the whole story; this is a coming-of-age story with a focus on all of Riley’s relationships - with her self, her mother, her friends. Throughout the story, Riley grows into her self - gaining confidence and coming up with a plan of what she does and doesn’t want out of her life. Emma Lord does YA rom-coms so well, and The Getaway List is no exception. There are some nods to her other books and there’s always a bit of a nerdy element, which reminds me of my teenage years.

Had a really difficult time getting through this...the flow of this was disjointed and hard to follow.

Well, I just loved this book so much! Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes but even more so, I loved the themes of self discovery and friendship and family woven through this story. This wasn’t so much a young adult romance as it was a love story — in all the ways — and I was 100% here for all of it.

This book was very on brand for Emma Lord- lucky for me, I enjoy Emma Lord stories! Her characters are likeable and sweet and I enjoyed getting lost and reminiscing back into my new-adult days (which were nothing like Tom & Riley’s, but that’s what makes it fun!). 3.5⭐️ thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC of this novel!

4.5 Stars

Every year I read an Emma Lord book, it ends up as a favorite of the year and The Getaway List is no exception! Dare I say, it might even rival Tweet Cute as my favorite Emma Lord novel. I’m not going to lie when I read the synopsis and read the first chapter, I feared for my enjoyment of this book (I thought it would end up being a three stars overall) but if this reading experience taught me anything, it’s not to doubt Ms. Emma Lord because this blew my expectations out of the water. Luckily I was hooked from the 2nd chapter when she arrived in New York!

One of the things Emma Lord does well is characters and their dynamics. She makes the most loveable friend groups! Mariella (an up and coming app developer), Luca (an aspiring writer), Jesse (the head of a rock band), and Riley and Tom were all great individuals with their own problems they’re trying to figure out and distinct personalities and the way they support each other in whatever they are dealing with…ahhh…they just mesh so well together! They felt very much like real people and a friend group I would love to be a part of as they tackle the hijinks of The Getaway List!

I love a good childhood friends to lovers romance and it was done so well here with Riley and Tom. They were so cute together with Lord’s signature banter! I felt their chemistry so hard because we got to know each of them individually and how they became best friends and grew up together. It made them getting together satisfying! Of course they had their cheesy moments but what romance doesn’t! Together they helped each other become better versions of themselves!

Not to mention the New York backdrop!!! I mean most of Emma Lord's books are set in NY but this book felt like an homage to the city so I never felt the magic of the Big Apple as much as I did when I read this book. She really brought it to life and it felt magical! I’ve always wanted to go to New York so watching Riley find her home and settle in New York while she figures out her life was awesome and made me want to go even more!

Parental relationship exploration (which is also present in Lord’s other novels) is present and done well. Both Riley and Tom had issues with their moms and it was great seeing them work through their issues. Riley sort of resents her mom for never giving her a space to explore what she likes, what she wants and who she is which is why Riley runs off to New York to stay with Tom to figure that out. Tom’s mom on the other hand was barely emotionally present in Tom’s life because she was always so busy working on her newest film manuscript to even give him the light of day. Riley and Tom helped each other through each of the wounds their mom’s caused and reading about their healing was beautiful. I appreciate how the healing wasn’t necessarily wrapped up in a pretty bow for Tom by the end of the book because a wound like that takes time to heal.

I feel like a lot of people, especially those who have felt lost once or twice (or a thousand times) in their life, could benefit from reading Riley’s journey! She learns to find herself and what she wants to do for her future all while finding a perfect home for herself. This could be relatable and cathartic for a lot of people going through big changes as I know it was for me!

Emma Lord strikes again with a novel that’s relatable and all around feels like a warm embrace. If it’s not obvious already, I highly recommend this book! I can’t wait to pick up a physical copy so I can annotate it and place it on my shelf with my other Emma Lord novels and I hope you’ll join me on January 23rd, 2024!

I have loved all of Emma Lord's books and The Getaway List falls into that category. New York, young love, adventures and sweet treats. This book had it all. I loved the banter and humor of this book of Riley and Tom rediscovering their friendship and more. I hope you fall in love with the side characters as much as I did!


Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sending me this book for review consideration!

Emma Lord can do no wrong in my eyes, and this was no exception. I loved this adorable coming of age tale about two teens, on their own for the first time, as they find friendship, love, and themselves.

Riley and Tom were adorable, and their friendship felt truly authentic and the chemistry naturally progressed from friends to romance. I loved the exploration of both characters relationships with their very different mothers; Riley and her mom were a great example of how even the best mother-daughter relationships can have issues. I also loved their friendships with Mariella - both a healthy, strictly platonic relationship between Tom and Mariella, and strong, supportive female friendships, with Mariella immediately embracing Riley.

This is definitely YA, so set your expectations accordingly, but I loved this story so much.

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

Emma lord and her Young Adult’ book are my kryptonite. I so loved this!! Emma Lord’s writing style and this book, the combo didn't disappoint. Loved this storyline and the character development. Overall, it was a full 5 stars read for me

While I do not think was the most earth shattering book, it was refreshingly sweet new adult story with characters you would actually want to spend time with and there is really no doubt there is going to be a happy ending with these childhood friends ,Riley and Tom, who become more. Is it realistic? It is absolutely not, but you cannot fault this book for tying up all the loose ends in a neat and happy little bow. The friend group is as endearing as the romance.

It is also a coming of age story that incorporates some of the bumps experienced when attempting to strike out on one’s own when close and loving parents are perhaps not ready. Riley’s Mom is hesitant to let her make her own choices which spurs her to visit her best friend Tom after her High School graduation. Riley comes into her own on this trip with the help of new and old friends.

I wanted to love this book, I really did. I've been in a bit of a reading rut recently and figured a cute YA romance would lift me up. I liked Tweet Cute so I thought this would be a safe bet, unfortunately I was wrong. This book is...okay. It's fine. It's just Ken energy.

Major Tropes:
- Childhood friends to lovers
- He fell first
- Found family
- New York. Literally so much of the book was just a love letter to NYC that it was a personality trait all on its own.

Maybe I would like this more if it was NA rather than YA. The characters are all 18 or older, so I felt like the romances were a little juvenile in the approach (there were only two kisses in the whole book, I think). But also, making the characters younger would have made the fact that Riley just took off to NYC to visit Tom because she's 18 and an adult and can do whatever she wants and doesn't need her mom's permission, kinda strange.

Or maybe I would like it more if the romance was more of the focus. I felt like the focus was just on Riley and her "bORiNg" life at home and how much more "eXciTiNg" New York City is. (Seriously, a form of "boring" is used 13 times throughout, but it feels like much much more, trust me.) I also felt like the book focused more on the found family that Riley accumulates in her starting two days in the city, rather than the romance with Tom.

Also, and maybe this is because I'm based on the west coast, but I just do not get the appeal of NYC. Like, yeah, there's a lot going on, and tons of restaurants, but also there is an appeal to like...being able to open your window and not hear cars honking. So the constant description of how much Riley just absolutely adores NYC made me roll my eyes more than once.

I don't know, it just didn't work for me really, but I did finish it in two days, so do with that what you will.

This book was a fun and breezy read, but unfortunately there were some things that didn't quite hit the mark for me.
I felt like all the conflict was resolved really quickly or off-page, which made the story feel disjointed and rushed. I loved that there were so many different aspects to Riley's coming-of-age (school trouble, strained relationship with her mom, "finding herself" etc), but everything seemed to happen so so fast.
I also felt like the romance between Riley and Tom was underdeveloped at best. I wish we saw more of the development/realization between them instead of just one scene mid-book before he left.
I absolutely loved the secondary characters and the way they encouraged Riley on her journey to find herself. I was rooting for them the whole time, and loved every interaction she had with them.

Overall, the book felt almost like a love story to New York, and if that was the goal, I wish that Riley and Tom's love story had either ended differently or been more pronounced in tandem with Riley falling in love with the city.

Emma Lord is one of my faves, and I will still read her books; I just think this one wasn't for me! Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

While I sometimes find myself wondering if I've aged out of YA (hi, early 30's!), I've never felt that way with Emma Lord. The Getaway List was really freaking cute, and hit that first time leaving home feeling in a way I remember all too well, even though it was a while ago now. Filled with feeling, and written in a way that wraps you up in the story, this is another really good read by Emma.

Emma Lord does not disappoint with this new novel! Just as light and fun as her other books. I loved the banter between Tom and Riley and laughed out loud multiple times. Highly recommend if you like her other books!

This book was exactly what i needed. I have only read a few of Emma Lord's books but her writing makes me feel warm and happy and wholly understood.

Riley and Tom's friendship made me envious of having a relationship where the other person knows you so well, and remembers every piece of you back to your childhood. Lord does a found family side characters so incredibly well and Mariella, Luca and Jesse were the perfect addition to Riley and Tom's summer. I feel like including a full cast of characters always makes the story a little fuller and gives more meet to the usual relationship tropes - friends to lovers/will they won't they.

I have heard people saying this is Lord's best yet, and it is definitely my favourite so far.

This was a really fun, heartwarming book about growing up and figuring out what you want from life. At this point, I feel pretty comfortable going into any book by Emma Lord knowing I'm going to have a good time. But I especially liked this one for the Welcome to New York vibes.